Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-11-05

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ravelment / understand all the processes by
which men get into the dark. l know them
al. l have travelled with burning feet their
blistered way. The first word that children
learn to utter is generally papa or mamma,
think the first word l ever uttered was
why / know what it is to have a hun
dred midnights pour their darkness into
one hour. Such men are not to bo
scoffed at, but helped Turn your back upon
drowning man when you have the rope
with which to pull him ashore, and let that
woman in the third story of house perish in
the flames when you have a ladder with
which to help her out and help her down,
rather than turn your back scoff1ngly on a
skeptic whose sotil is in more peril than the
bodies Of those other endangered ones possi-
| bly, can be- Oh, skepticism is a dark land.
There are niei1 in this house who would give
a thotisand worlds, if they possessed them,
to get back to the fj,acid faith of their fathers
and mothers. and it is ouT place TO help them,
/ and we may help them never through their
heads but always through their he1rts.
These skeptics, when brought to Jesus, VIII be
nightly affected-far more so than those
| who never examined the evidences of Chris
tianity Thomas Chalmers was once skep-
tic. Robert Hall skentic. Robert Newton a
skeptic, Christmas Evans a skeptic. But
when once with strong hand they took hold
OF the chariot of the Gospel, they rolled it on
with what momentum If / address such
men and women today l throw out
no scoff. l implead them by the mem
ory of the good old days when at their
mothers knee they said: "Now lay me
down to s.eep,n and by those days and nights
Of scarlet fever in which she watched YOU,
giving you the medicine at just the right
| time and turning your pillow when it was
hot, and with hands that many years ago
turned to dust soO.led away your pain, and
with voice that you will never hear again,
L.
told you to never mind, for you void feel
better by and by, and by that dying couch
where she looked SO pale and talked so
slowly, catching her breath between the
woris, and you felt an awful loneliness
coming over your soul: by all that, beg
you To come back and take the same relig-
ion. 1t was good enough for her. 1t is good
enough for you, Nay, l have a better plea
than that plead by all the wounds, and
tears, and blood, and groans, and agonies
and death throes of the Son of God, who ap-
proaches you this moment with torn brow,
and lacerated hand, and whipped back, and
saying: "Come unto me, all ye who are weary
and heavy laden, and / will give you rest"
Again there is field of usefulness but
little touched occupied by those who are
astray in their habits All northern ma
tons, like those of North America and Eng
land and Scotland, that is in the colder
climates. are devastated by alcohol
ism They take the fire to keep up
the warmth. In southern countries like
Arabia and Spain, the blood is SO they are
not tempted to fiery liquids The great Ro-
man armies never drank anything stronger
than water tinge1 with vinegar, but under
our northern climate the temptation to neat
ing stimulants is most mighty, and millioni
s,.ccumb. When mans habits go wrong
the church drops him, the social circle drops
him 81 all f6e men wo Ao get io tie track 66Ge
few ever get on again. Near my summer
residence there is a life saving station on the
beach. There are all the ropes and rockets,
the boats, the machinery for getting people
off shipwrecks. Summer before last / saw
there fifteen or twenty men who were break
fasting, after having just escaped with their
lives and nothing more. Up and down our
coasts are built these useful structures, and
the mariners know It. and they feel that IL
they are driven into the breakers there will
be apt from shore to come rescue. The
churches OF God ought to be 50 many life saw
ing stations, not so much to help those who
are In smooth waters, but those who have been
shipwrecked. Come, let us run out the life
boats And who will man thems We do not
preach enough to such men; we have not
enough faith in their release Alas, II when
they come to hear us we are laboriously try
ing to show the difference between sublap-
saran;sm and supralaprarianism while they
have n thousand vipers of remorse and de-
spair coiling around and biting their immortal
spirits. The church is not chiefly for goodish
sort of men whose procliyities are all right,
and who could get 10 heaven praying and
singing in their own hom s. 1t is on the
beach to help the drowning. Those bad
cases are the cases that God likes
to take hold of. Hs can save a
big sinner as well as a small sinner,
and when a man calls earnestly to God for
help he will go out to deliver such one. Il
it were necessary God would come down
from the sky, followed by all the artillery of
heaven and 100000 angels with drawn
swords Get 100 such redeemed men in each
of your churches, and nothing could stand
before them, for such men are generally warm
hearted and enthusiastic oformal prayers
then No heartless singing then. No cold
conventionalisms then.
Furthermore the destitute children Of the
street offer field of work comparatively un-
occupied. The uncared for children are in
the majority in Brooklyn and most of our
cities. When they grow up, II unreformed,
they will outvote your children. and they VIII
govern yoar children. The whisky ring will
hatch out other whisky rings. and grog
shops will kill with their horrid stencil public
sobriety. unless the church of God rises up
with outstretched arms and enfolds this dying
population in her bosom. Public schools can
not do it. Art galleries cannot do it. Black
| well s lSlanQ CunnOU 10 lU. AluiauOuscS tdil-
not do it. New York Tombs and Raymond
Street jail cannot do it, Sing Sing cannot
do it, Church of God, wake up to your mag
nificent mission. You can do it. Get some
where. somehow to work.
4 The Prussian cavalry mount by putting
their right foot into the stirrup, while the
| American cavalrymen mount by putting
their left foot into the stirrup. don't care
how you mount your war charger, II you
only get into this battle for God and get there
( soon, right stiriup, or left stirrup, or
no stirrup at all. The unoccupied fields
are all around us, and why should
we build on another mans foundationl
| That God has called this church to
especial work no one can doubt. Its his
tory has been miraculous. God has helped us
at every step. and though the wheels OF its
history have made many revolutions, they
have all been forwarded, and never backward,
and now with our borders enlarged and with
important re-enforcements we start on a new
campaign. At Sharon Springs, nineteen
years ago, walking in the park, lasked God, IL
he had any particular work for me TO do, to
make il plain and would do it. He revealed
to me the style of church we were TO have, an
he revealed TO me the architecture, and he re
vealed to me the modes of worship, and he
revealed 10 me my work, and, as far as in my
ignorance ana weakness have seen the right
way, have tried TO walk in It.
III a -